Sunday, January 29, 2017

Weekly Log 23-Jan to 29-Jan-2017: From Dog Mess to Dog Trail Runs

Monday: 0

Tuesday: 7
Woody Hill run in the dark and rain. Started about 4:40pm in light rain, thus I was certain to run out of daylight and wore my headlamp. By the time I made it to the beaver dam (or what's left of it after DEM destructed it), I was pretty much out of light. Not sure how you could make it across without getting your feet soaked, but as I mentioned, it was raining anyway. On the way around the pond, it really started to pour and remained heavy for the rest of the run. Soaked, but fun.

Wednesday: 10
AM: 5 miles, Blue Heron Trail, Dedham, MA. Not a good start to my day:
1) Had planned to run the full 8-10 mile loop, but construction would have forced me on to a very short, but dangerous section of road, where the traffic is busy and temporarily on a narrow one-way lane with jersey barriers hemming you in on both sides. What to do now? I ended up running a lollipop on trails instead, but never got into and just "jogged" it.
2) Got into the car, and started to driving to the Charles River Y to shower and change for work. What smells? Sniffed again. Ugh. The unmistakable stench of dog s%#t. I pulled over on a side street with lots of puddles and repeatedly dragged my shoe in the puddle getting rid of much of the caked debris, until I can get to the Y and hose the rest off. As I get back into the car, I notice a bunch more caked on my clutch pedal. Disgusting.
3) To add insult to injury, I forgot to bring a towel. Drip dry naked for a few minutes, and then dress. Not my morning.

PM: 5 miles, Wrentham State Forest, Wrentham, MA. About 3:40pm. Starting to get darker and I've never been here, so I don't want to take a lot of chances on unmarked trails. Ran the main yellow loop, which while extremely well marked, just had to many sections of complete erosion. Lots of climbs and rock scrambles. Took 2 Strava CRs in the process.

Thursday: 6
Barn Island in late afternoon. Laughed off a mud wipeout early in the run. Ran through quite a few flooded sections of trails, but it was quite warm at 44 degrees. At dusk, it was getting quite hard to see the trails, especially the perimeter trail which is sometimes hard to follow even in daylight (ask Beth!). It actually got easier when darkness enveloped the preserve and my headlamp lit up the path.

I used to get nervous of running out of daylight when running late afternoon, but recently with a headlamp, I embrace the impending darkness.

Friday: 5
Ran NST from the campground entrance to where it intersects with VG, then ran VG back into the campground. Tried like heck to avoid the asphalt through the campground as I ran through campsites and dirt roads. Made my way up to Legion Town, and then took VG out to Sanctuary Road, and wound back through Burlingame Trail and the trail that is the first mile or so of Brrr-lingame race.

Saturday: 20
Back to the roads after a week straight of running trails. Seeing the wind at about 15mph with gusts to 25mph, my preference would be for another trail run, but I've got to put at least some road runs in before the spring marathon.
4 miles easy (7:20ish), then two sets of 3 miles at MP with one mile easy. Both sets were hard to me, as I struggled to keep it below 6:30. I was contemplating a 3rd set, but it would have been in the wind on Route 1, so no thanks. I may have to have a talk with myself about what constitutes MP for me in 2017.
Wound through Weekapaug and found one Tommy FiveK running a Hell Field workout to the tunes of TNT. "I'm dirty; I'm mean; I'm mighty unclean." Good stuff.
The final stretch home along Atlantic Avenue into stiff headwinds wiped out what little strength I had left. At one point, I was struggling to keep it below 9-minute pace against 25mph headwinds.

Sunday: 7
Woody Hill group trail run. Tommy with Riley in tow, and WHS runners Matthew and Sam. Hit the usual highlights. Mostly single-track, mostly non-technical. When we came to the few technical spots, neither Riley nor Tommy seemed to know what to do as they both slowed up to assess and figure out the situation. The beaver dam is gradually coming back, and the stone fort needs a good clean-up. Always good fun in Woody.

(In front of the stone fort at Woody Hill)
Out for a trail run with my new dog, Riley.
I need to teach this boy how to run technical trails!
I can't rely on Tommy for that. :)

Weekly mileage: 55

Weekly synopsis: Another good mileage week. Wednesday morning's run was a real downer, but otherwise all the runs were good. Despite getting in my second 20-miler though, I still feel like I'm a long way from being in marathon shape. Up next week is OMF.

1 comment:

Well other than the dog crap and forgetting a towel, a good week. Walking in dog crap INFURIATES me! Hmmmm.... have to get back to Barn, there is only so much daylight I'm not even going to attempt THAT at dusk! Hmmm, I need to find the stone fort! I'm sure that will take many tries for this very direction challenged person! Oh my, Riley, sweetie, Gus and Jax would have put it in four paw drive and plowed through! I am always amazed at their agility and fearlessness.